South Koran’s official news agency Yonhap has cited the South Korean presidential administration as saying that Seoul has not supplied weapons to the Kiev regime because it thinks it necessary to maintain stability in relations with Moscow and the decision on weapons deliveries is not restricted by law and depends on Russia’s actions.
According to Russian TASS news agency, a senior presidential official noted that the nature of aid being supplied to Ukraine had not changed and that South Korea provides humanitarian and financial aid. He pointed out that South Korean laws do not prohibit supplying arms to foreign countries in the state of war, nor are there any provisions in the Foreign Ministry’s instructions forbidding providing military aid to third countries in a difficult situation.
“The reason we are not doing it lies in the necessity to maintain stability in Russian-South Korean relations while supporting the international community’s policy on protecting the freedom of Ukrainian people,” the administration explained.
“We can think of it in reverse, that what we do in the future will depend on Russia,” the senior official said. He added that the president’s remarks were based on “common sense” and that Russian authorities were “commenting on something that isn’t happening.”
In an interview with Reuters published on Wednesday, South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol did not rule out the possibility that Seoul might start supplying weapons to Ukraine if there was a serious threat to civilians or a “serious violation of the laws of war.”
Commenting on the situation, Russian Presidential Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that weapon supplies to Ukraine would mean Seoul’s indirect involvement in the conflict. He added that there was “nothing cardinally new” about Yoon’s interview. Deputy Chairman of Russia’s Security Council Dmitry Medvedev believes that Seoul should think about the reaction of the South Korean population when the latest Russian weapons appear in the DPRK.
MNA/PR